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PandaWarrior

Is DNA a monomer or polymer?

David Cummings  Follow
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Aliayson  Follow

In the same way that a chain and a single link are alike.

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And Esco  Follow

Monomers are single units which combine together to form polymers. So polymers are bigger than monomers

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Deep & Dark Web  Follow

DNA is a polymer. More precisely, DNA is a linear heteropolymer — linear because the monomeric subunits (nucleotides) are strung together in a linear array — like letters in a sentence — and a heteropolymer because it is made up of four different monomeric subunits — our old friends A, G, C and T. The information in DNA resides in the sequence of nucleotides in the linear polymeric structure of DNA. The structure of DNA is therefore a form of linear information.

I find it interesting that cellular life and human writing should both have hit upon one-dimensional linear arrays as the best way to transmit precise information (as opposed to, say, the two dimensional form of information in pictures and the three dimensional form of information in sculptures). Of course the real world is three dimensional, so the information in DNA has to be transformed into a three-dimensional form to be functional. In the process of information transfer in biological systems, this doesn’t occur until the information has been translated into another language — the sequence of amino acids in polypeptides — and the polypeptide chains fold up into three dimensional structures. I know. TMI.

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Ahmed Ali  Follow

There are polymers which one monomer unit and it gets repeated while others are a cross of two or more monomer units which get repeated. For example, nylon 6 has a monomer unit known as caprolactam while bakelite has two monomer units known as formaldehyde and phenol.

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Arjun Koli  Follow

DNA is composed of repeating units called nucleotides. Nucleotides are the monomers. DNA is the polymer.

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David A Kelly  Follow

the question made me rolf. a chain of monomers is a polymer. and many monomers make chains because of their unique structure and the monomers shake hands with each other to make a polymer chain.

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Ariel Watson  Follow

Mechanically I would always expect the polymer to be stronger (more resistant to flow or more difficult to break.)

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Bob Given  Follow

Imagine building a straight or branched chain of Legos. Monomers are the individual Legos and polymers are the chain. They are remarkably versatile depending on what type of monomers and what ratio are used.

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Brad Walter  Follow

1,3 Butadiene and Styrene are monomers of Buna-S.

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